Press Release

NEW YORK -- Major League baseball players in both leagues have selected finalists for the highest of honors  the Players Choice Awards, in which the players themselves recognize excellence on and off the field. Winners of the 2007 Players Choice Awards will be announced in a series of Internet webisodes on Yahoo! Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/awards/pa), beginning Tuesday, October 23, and continuing daily through Saturday, October 27, to benefit the Major League Baseball Players Trust.

Finalists for Player of the Year are Matt Holliday (Rockies), Magglio Ordonez (Tigers) and Alex Rodriguez (Yankees). Holliday helped propel the Rockies late-season surge and finished the year with a .340 average, including 36 home runs and 137 RBI  all career highs. Ordonez did all he could do to help keep the Tigers post-season hopes alive, batting .363 with career highs in homers (28) and RBI (139). Rodriguez delivered another stellar season, helping the Yankees reach their twelfth-straight post-season, hitting .314 with 54 homers (his third 50+ HR season) and a career-high 156 RBI.

Leading the voting for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year award are Tom Glavine (NY Mets), Torii Hunter (Minnesota) and Jake Peavy (San Diego). Glavines resume of charitable involvement is as impressive as his many baseball accomplishments, including support for Volunteers of America, New Yorks Operation Backpack campaign, the Georgia Transplant Foundation, Tuesdays Children, and the Leukemia Society of America. Hunter shares his passion for baseball with those less fortunate through the Torii Hunter Project, which partners with the Little League Urban Initiative to provide youth baseball programs in Americas inner cities. Peavy actively supports a variety of causes, including TEAM FOCUS, a leadership camp in mobile, ala, where he hosted and mentored 30 fatherless boys. Named for the founding director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, the Marvin Miller Man of the Year award honors the player whose on-field and off-the-field performance most inspires others to higher levels of achievement.

Players Choice Awards annually recognize the top pitcher, player, rookie and comeback player in each league, while the Player of the Year and Man of the Year awards bestow top honors without regard to league. Balloting for the Players Choice Awards was conducted in September under the supervision of accounting firm KPMG.

Each 2007 Players Choice Award winner will recommend the charity of his choice to receive a grant from the Major League Baseball Players Trust. Since 1992, the Players Trust contributed more than $3 million dollars to charities around the world in honor of Players Choice Award winners.

The Major League Baseball Players Association (www.MLBPLAYERS.com) is the collective bargaining representative for all professional baseball players of the thirty Major League Baseball teams and serves as the exclusive group licensing agent for commercial and licensing activities involving active Major League baseball players. On behalf of its members, it operates the Players Choice licensing program and Players Choice Awards, which benefit the needy through the Major League Baseball Players Trust, a charitable foundation established and run entirely by Major League baseball players.

Yahoo! Sports (http://new.sports.yahoo.com) is the leading sports destinations on the web, offering a fast, live and interactive experience for sports fans online. With original fantasy games, real-time scores and breaking news features, Yahoo! Sports is the destination of choice for millions of fans each month.